COWARD, TOO
by WrittenWithPencils
Summary: The adventure has only just begun.
1. It Begins

**Before we begin, let me say some things. Despite what the summary says, this story is not complete. It's labeled as this because I may lose interest in it at any given time, and since the series isn't a whole story with the plot mountain spanning throughout the entire thing, the series would technically be complete.**

**This is a collection of post-COWARD shorts (after the introduction) involving Viqtarr and the who we'll get to know more. I'd tell you more, but why spoil it when we're so close?**

**x.x.x**

**COWARD, TOO. By WrittenWithPencils.**

**x.x.x**

**1: It Begins.**

**x.x.x**

If there was one thing that Viqtarr wanted to know about his new friend, it was her name. He was beginning to annoy himself a bit by referring to her as 'little girl', 'child' and so on and so forth. So when he and the girl decided to stop looking for her scanner, which they had been doing for so long that if felt like an eternity and had been luckless in finding, he suggested to himself that he'd asked her eventually.

They decided to sit on a large rock, across from one another. As they got comfortable, they could feel the wind picking up, but they didn't mind it. In fact, they couldn't ask for anything better than a cool breeze. They had grown tired while looking for the scanner.

The Overworlder looked over to the girl, who, once he thought about it, couldn't have been too much over 3 feet in height. Her pale skin practically glowed in the moonlight. Her shoulder length hair and eyes, which were black contradicted this. She wore light lavender pajamas, though Viqtarr didn't know the name for them, and slippers, white and fuzzy, and made to look like cute little bunnies.

''How can you not remember where your scanner went to?'' Viqtarr asked the little kid. She didn't give much of a reply, just a slight shrug of the shoulders.

''It just went missing,'' she explained. At that point, Viqtarr decided to dump the topic and begin with the name one, and so, he finally asked her. At first, it seemed like she was hesitant to answer. She had her eyes elsewhere and her face was blank. However, she then spoke up.

''Kizumi...'' was her answer.

''Kizumi? What kind of name is that?'' Viqtarr asked.

''What kind of name is Viqtarr?'' the girl replied.

''What's that supposed to mean!?'' the mad Overworlder questioned. Kizumi braced for a possible impact, not bothering to answer his question. The bear-like creature's rage vanished when he saw the fear in the girl's eyes, and sat back down, apologizing for his actions.

After that came complete silence between the both of them. Neither two wanted to say anything anymore. Viqtarr's outburst had killed the conversation. He felt bad, Kizumi felt scared. Talking was no longer something that could be done for this break time. The quiet lasted for a little while until Viqtarr suggested that they get back to looking for the scanner again, which ended in agreement between the duo.

The search was a complete waste of time. The item could not be found. For hours, they looked everywhere only to find nothing. Surprisingly, it was Viqtarr who was worrying the most. At first, one would think that Kizumi would at the very least be scared to death at the thought of not returning home, but instead, she didn't really react at all. It was as if she wanted to stay here forever. Viqtarr didn't think of such a possibility. He was stressing over the fact that she wouldn't be able to go home. He couldn't help but feel that a dark storm cloud was above his head, raining over him.

His downed mood vanished by Kizumi's lack of negativity on the subject, which he noticed when Kizumi walked up to the creature and said something to him.

''It's okay that I may have to stay here for a while. Nobody's watching me at home. I can stay for a while. And when I have to go, we can always ask some other player and they could call for help.''

Despite the questions that this answer rose, Viqtarr bought it. The dark rain cloud that rained down on him had vanished. He was happy to hear such an idea. In his head, it was the ultimate solution. He felt no more worry in his mind. Just happiness. All ends tied. No unsolved mysteries. Perfection.

Before they fell asleep in the same cave that the beast declared himself as a 'coward' in, Viqtarr told Kizumi that he would see that she would remain safe and out of danger and harm until she could go home, and that he would keep this up as long as she kept going to Chaotic. The child was too tired to pick up these words, but he didn't notice, as she had her backed turned on him. Plus, Viqtarr was to the point of sleepiness where he began to stop putting much thought into anything.

They both fell into slumber shortly afterwards, getting lost in the mad lands of their dreams, waiting for the upcoming day.

**x.x.x**

**Not feeling that I did this to the best of my abilities. Not because of the length, though. I'm not worrying about such a thing in this story.**

**Just in case you were wondering; ''Why give this story a sequel? What about 'Playing Along?'' I have my reasons. Playing Along was just an experiment, and plus, don't you remember? Grizzly ran out of ink!**

**XxX WrittenWithPencils XxX**


	2. Remembering and Catching Up

The long wait for this one was not because I was 'too lazy' or Writer's Block. I just tend to go at a steady pace with this stuff. And now, here we go. Chapter 2.

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**Remembering and Catching Up.**

**x.x.x**

There they stood, under the moonlight in the freezing land called Glacier Plains, before the monument. The monument that helped the creatures of Perim and the players of Chaotic remember the Overworlder Tangath Toborn, the one who sacrificed everything for everyone. Viqtarr looked up at the monument. His face was blank and covered by darkness from the upper part. He was silent as he stood frozen like a statue, staring at the structure that reminded everyone to help make sure that Toborn was never forgotten. Though he never really knew him that well, other than the basic facts and a few other things here and there, he still felt the heavy need to remain silent for him. The funeral that was held shortly after the one known as Vitog emerged and went on a rampage.

Unlike Viqtarr, Kizumi, who stood right next to the Overworlder, wasn't exactly focused on the monument that much, and she really didn't feel any negative emotions at all. She was a bit busy with looking around the area where she and Viqtarr stood. Her eyes shifted from looking at one human to the next. Two particular figures that caught the child's eyes were the slightly tanned boy with the black hair and the blue eyes and the miserable, grievous look on his face, and the mysterious girl next to the boy, the one with the wavy blonde hair, wearing the burgundy coat that covered her from shoulder to ankle, and her face hidden by blackness. Unlike the darkness that was on Viqtarr's face, the shade on this girl's face covered everything.

While Kizumi was lost in observation, Viqtarr was lost in thought, looking back on the past while spacing out and managing to remain standing upright. He didn't have to worry about losing control of his body and risk falling onto someone like Kizumi or breaking something such as the monument. He spaced out at least once a day for a number of reasons. Lack of interest in something he's being told, boredom, thinking (a rare one) and others. This time, it was for looking back at previous, something had not done before. Well, it was the first time he had done the looking back part while not using it to remember something important that he had forgotten.

The creature revisited the day where Tangath Toborn and some other Overworlders went to Broken Edge to deal with the Mipedians and their plans to claim the land as their own, despite the agreement that the area was a neutral location. He recollected the parts where he and the others focused their attention on Toborn. Next came the battle between his tribe and the enemy, the part where they felt drained from the Surge Song mugic, but fought back by a mysterious force that had strengthened them, and the following day where they got to work on cleaning the destroyed camp, with the help of a group of humans. He had recalled hearing their names, though he couldn't actually remember them. He also recalled the time where him and some other creatures from the other tribes attempted to thaw out Tangath from the wave that he had frozen himself in. The wave that would have destroyed everything that was Perim, in terms of land, had he not used the Symphony of Stasis mugic to stop the tsunami monster. He remembered his reaction from seeing the ghost of Toborn. Shocked, like everyone else, since they had just given up hope from countless tries to bust him out, only he wasn't shocked enough to show it on his face.

Viqtarr had no comment from remembering these days. The days where Perim was at risk for complete destruction. The days where everything was on the line. The days where everyone was hit hard inside after they had witnessed what Tangath had done the most serious of risks to keep everyone safe. As he got back to reality, he focused his attention on the monument once again and begin to think to himself.

_I've never known much about you, Tangath, but I won't forget you. I promise._

The creature looked over his shoulder to see Kizumi, still standing next to him. At first, he thought that she was observing the monument like him, until he noticed where her head was actually turned towards. He looked in the direction as her and saw what she was really looking at. He saw the boy with the black hair and blue eyes. He remembered him from the camp and the funeral. He still couldn't remember his name.

Viqtarr then noticed that Kizumi was looking at something else. He looked a bit over to the right and saw a blonde human female in a coat walking off into the distance. He couldn't help but remember another past event as he watched her vanish slowly into a blizzard. She looked so familiar to the Overworlder, but he couldn't understand why.

_''Hey, wait a minute, aren't you the creature that got called a coward by those goth kids?''_

_''Who told you that?''_

_''No one. I saw it myself. I saw you chasing after them, and, I couldn't help but be nosy.''_

_''Listen, it's not a bad thing if you can't hurt kids,'' The girl continued. ''It just means that you care... well, something like that. Maybe it makes you...''_

_''A coward?''_

_''Well, no, but, maybe we can call it that. I mean, being a 'coward', well, the coward that were talking about here shouldn't be a bad thing.''_

_''I look weak! They'll think I'm weak!''_

_''I don't see how murdering kids fixes that.''_

_''What are you trying to tell me!?''_

_''I'm just saying that you're a 'coward' in a good way. ...Looks like we have our own term for coward now...''_

That was when it hit Viqtarr. The thought that he was looking at the girl who he found in the arsenal back in Kiru City not so many nights ago.

''It's her!'' he blurted out as began to run, going around the monument and pushing the boy with the black hair aside, attempting to catch up with the girl. Kizumi began to follow as well, calling his name as she tried to keep up with him. He was too busy to notice her cries. He needed to know the girl was who he thought, and along with that, hoped she was.

**x.x.x**

All that he could see of the girl was her shadowy figure walking deeper and deeper into the blizzard. It was enough to keep him going. As much as he disliked things like blizzards and rain and heavy winds and such, he was more than willing to force himself through the harsh conditions. He had to know if whether or not this girl was the Coward Girl, the one who indirectly solved his personal confusion and self-hatred and earned him a friend when he broke through the darkness in his mind. He couldn't let her get out of his reach.

When he realized that he could just call for the human (he felt stupid after realizing this), he began to call out for her in a wave of 'wait', 'stop' and 'come back'. While he cried out himself, Kizumi was as well, who was still following the Overworlder, even though he knew the risks of going into the blizzard with him. The child had somehow managed to keep up with the ursine giant, fueled by determination to keep up. The most surprising thing about their running spree was how far they had actually ran. Though they didn't know it, they had actually ran faster they both would have at the speed that they were going at. Kizumi was still little, and wasn't exactly agile yet. Viqtarr may have been one of the biggest, strongest and toughest creatures to walk the Overworld at his time, but he was no runner. No, not at all. He could run at a decent speed, but that was it. No matter how much he called out for the coated human, Viqtarr got no answer. He couldn't understand why. The voices that ran through Glacier Plains would echo on for almost a mile at the very most. Even those with the poorest of hearing could hear such echoes when they went at them. The girl had to have been deaf to not hear the creature calling out for her.

But then, out of sheer luck, Viqtarr watched as the shadowy figure fell into the snow. She had tripped. Now was his chance to catch up. The beast ran as fast as his wide, thick and kind of stubby legs could take him and focused on the figure that had fallen into the snow, which was powdery soft on the upper layers, though Viqtarr's weight caused him to sink into the harder and deeper layer that covered the softer layer like a child that was covered by a soft, fluffy blanket. Speaking of children, Kizumi was still going strong, though she wouldn't last much longer. An odd, rusty taste began to fill her mouth. She practically gagged on it from her hatred of how it tasted to her; more disgusting than brussel sprouts. It was quite a lot to bear for the girl, but it wasn't stopping her. Not when she was this close to her friend. She kept herself going, driven by the fear of being alone in the snow, which we personally didn't like to walk through. She wished that she had known about the snow, though it wasn't like she could tell. She had no clue what the word glacier meant. She knew about plains, but not glacier. She regretted not asking Viqtarr what the word meant.

The Overworlder stopped right in front of the girl who had fallen in the snow before him and picked her up, placing her on her feet and standing her up straight like she was a lamp. The human had nearly fallen as she regained control of her body, fighting the dizziness out of her head. She rubbed her aching head as she looked up at Viqtarr, who looked down at her. It was at that moment that the creature finally got a look at the girl's face which was not hidden by the blackness. Her fair skin, her brown eyes and her blonde hair; the face was exactly what he was picturing. The girl standing before her was just who we hoped it was since the second he saw her. It was the Coward Girl. The girl who had he been wanting to meet again and thank for everything.

Before he could converse with her, Kizumi walked her way over to his side as she began to catch her breath after running her practical marathon. The humanoid bear noticed his friend, and became level with her to make sure that she was alright.

''Are you okay?'' he asked her. The little girl nodded 'yes'.

''What's- what going on?'' asked the Coward Girl, who had just completely regained control of herself. She looked at the creature in front of her, and when she realized who he was, she froze in surprise and disbelieve. Like Viqtarr, the girl knew who she was looking at, that one person that they crossed paths with at the arsenal. The Overworlder and his tiny friend looked over to her as she continued looking back.

''...Viqtarr?'' the Coward Girl asked the ursine.

''You...'' said Viqtarr.

''...I guess that you took my advice?'' asked the Coward Girl as she looked down at Kizumi, who let off a sneeze. ''You know, since... she's not...''

Viqtarr didn't bother to finish her sentence. He got back on his feet and lent an arm out. The girl did as well. The two shaked hands as the creature smiled a bit.

''Thank you,'' he said to her in a quiet volume.

''You're welcome,'' she said back. ''So... I'm guessing that you're wanting to know my name?'' Viqtarr nodded in agreement while Kizumi watched silently from behind, not knowing what was going on. All she knew was that the mystery girl had began to shake hands wth him, ''My name's Lydia. Lydia Hoise.''

**x.x.x**

**Note that those lines from Viqtarr's daydreaming are from this fanfic's prequel, COWARD.**

**Lydia is a 3rd party character owned by JabbyJay on deviantART. All disclaims go out to her.**

**Reviews are love.**

**XxX WrittenWithPencils XxX**


	3. Meet My Friend, Arias

**Leave it to those random fanfic ideas that come from out of nowhere to make me bust out another chapter. Here's chapter 3.**

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**Meet My Friend, Arias.**

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''What the... who's this supposed to be?'' asked Arias the ram creature as he looked down at Kizumi, who was keeping herself occupied by with looking at the big ring jammed into his nose.

Viqtarr and Kizumi, who Viqtarr had dressed up in a dark, hooded coat to keep suspicions off of them, had lost track of the time while walking through the desolate streets of Kiru City. They had forgotten that a huge storm was supposed to cry down on the Overworld capital on this night, and by the time they remembered it, they felt the cold of the large, watery missiles dropped down from above piercing into their skin. They knew that the storm was just getting started, and began to scramble for shelter before things got bad. They ran through the streets as fast as they could until Viqtarr happened to notice that he and his friend were passing by the home of good his friend, Arias, and told Kizumi to follow him to the door as he knocked on it and called for him loudly.

They were lucky to even be inside his place. They had stumbled across a rather unhappy Arias; the only reason why he even opened the door, let alone let them in was because of the storm that was picking up outside. Now, the two found themselves faced by the humanoid ram, who had taken off Kizumi's coat after she had lashed out at him for attempting to ask her who she was in a tone that left the small girl feeling threatened. All Viqtarr could do was stand on the sidelines, hoping that things would take a more positive turn. He realized that it wasn't going to happen at this point.

''Don't touch her!'' Viqtarr told Arias as him and Kizumi focused on the bear. ''Her name is kizumi and she's with me!'' he stated. Arias looked at him with a risen brow. He was a bit confused as to why Viqtarr had tagged up with this girl he now knew as'Kizumi'. From what he knew, Viqtarr hated Chaotic Players like how every other tribe used to hate the other ones back in the days before the M'arillians escaped from the Deep Mines and began to terrorize Perim. He couldn't recall one time where he would see one of them as an ally other than a few times where he needed their help.

''You have to be joking,'' he said. ''Since when do you hang out with a Chaotic Player?'' Viqtarr understood his friend's claim. It wasn't like he knew about the whole coward incident.

''I'm not!'' the grizzly bear-like creature said back. His anger turned to sadness as he lowered his head. ''It's... it's a long story... Kizumi, would you go into the other room while me and Arias talk?''

''Mhmm,'' she answered while walking through the open door nearby and closed it behind her.

**x.x.x**

Arias listened to his friend as he told him the whole story. First came the part where he learned about how Viqtarr found Kizumi in the field and began to pursue the girl. Then came the part where he let of the secret issues of his, the part of him that just wouldn't let him kill Chaotic Players. He mentioned the girl that he had learned about a girl named 'Lydia' and how she helped him out with his issues when she taught him a few things in the arsenal, which in the end helped him to realize that it wasn't a bad thing to be a 'coward', as he called it. He also mentioned that because of his realization, He became friends with Kizumi. Arias found the story a bit hard to believe at first, but after a bit of thinking, and looking at Viqtarr's face, he accepted it as fact. He began to get a bit of a mean tone at the creature as he asked him a few questions.

''Do you know how dangerous it is to keep her around?''

''Yes, but she's stuck here, her scanner is missing. I-I couldn't just leave Kizumi on her own, especially not there. The others might have found her and...and...''

''I understand. But, Viqtarr, you can't just bring Kizumi into the city with you and not expect people to get suspicious, especially these days where Chaotic Players are becoming more dangerous.''

''Where else would I keep her? I can't just leave her at my house! Something might happen to her!''

''You're just like that because you're scared that someone might break into your house again.''

''It might happen!''

''Viqtarr, we all know that nobody tries to mess with you, especially after you beat up the thief when he broke into your house!''

''Not everybody!''

While Arias and Viqtarr were busy arguing, Kizumi listened to them as she pressed he ear against the wall of the room she was in as she tried to hear what the creatures were talking about. The brick walls made it hard to hear the conversation, but she could hear a few words clearly, especially when one of them raised their voice. So far, all she knew was that they were talking about someone being kept in Viqtarr's house and a thief that got beat up by him.

''You're just scared.''

''Well, you would be too if you were me! And aren't you friends with some human yourself? That Iris girl?''

''No. Just because I saved that one human girl from falling into a mud pit doesn't mean that were friends.''

''Then why did I see her following you around that one time when we were at Cordac Falls?''

''It was just a coincidence. How was I supposed to know that Cordac was her favorite location? Argh...''

The two stopped talking when they realized that their chat had derailed from the more important issue on hand. Kizumi, who thought that their talking was over with, walked over to the door and opened it up just enough for her to peek through it. She couldn't see Arias or Viqtarr. All that she could see was the light of the fireplace lighting up the walls. Thinking that it was safe to come out, she pushed the door out of the way and stepped out. She looked to her right to see the two Overworlders standing in the middle of the room, looking at her. She stopped in front of both of them.

''Are we gonna stay here?'' she asked Viqtarr.

''What? Of course we are- or- I mean...'' the humanoid ursine looked over his shoulder to see Arias nodding his head to show that he was willing to let them stay with him for the night. ''Yes, Kizumi. We are.''

Some time later, the trio began to settle down for the night. Before Arias could discuss bed matters, he found a sleeping, snoring Viqtarr by the fire. It looked like he had dozed off while trying to get warm. With him taken care of, he focused his attention on Kizumi, who, when he looked around for her, couldn't be found. Noticing the ajar door leading to the staircase, he made his way up the stairs and onto the second floor, which was nothing more than a large empty space with boxes of other creatures' stuff. When he made his way up, he saw Kizumi looking out an open window.

''What are you doing up here?'' he asked the girl as he walked over to her. She didn't look at him. Her answer was a mere shoulder shrug. He looked out the window with her. The rain was still going strong.

''I like to look at the rain whenever I'm away from home because it reminds me of it. It always rained there,'' Kizumi said to Arias.

''Well, you'll have to look at the rain later. It's time to go to bed,'' Arias told the girl. To his surprise, she began to make her way to the door. He closed the wooden gates of the window while watching the little human head downstairs. He followed her down the steps and into the living room. Just as he was about to tell her where she was going to sleep tonight, the child walked over to Viqtarr and sat down beside him, curling up with him and closing her eyes. The sleeping creature noticed her presence and smiled while sighing in happiness as his friend began to drift off.

Arias stared at the two with a risen eyebrow. He was having trouble with seeing this all being real, even after Viqtarr told him about his realization. This wasn't the Viqtarr he knew, the one that hated Chaotic Players with a passion. But he wasn't complaining. It wasn't his business. He began to make his way to bed, thinking about how the girl and the Overworlder would last in Perim.

_Viqtarr had better hope that the others will feel bad for a little kid like her._

**x.x.x**

**And that's chapter three. Personally, I've always pictured Viqtarr and Arias to be good friends, so I made them that way in this fanfic. With about 1,600 words long for a small idea like this, I'd say that this was a pretty successful chapter for the series. And by the way, just in case your curious about 'Iris'... look up SCP-105 in your search bar. Yup, this is an SCP reference. I don't know why, but I kind of see her and Arias to be a good team-up. It isn't anything for Living Amongst Monster, though... well, see you later.**

**XxX WrittenWithPencils XxX**


	4. Your Injuries

**Got the idea for this one after looking at Viqtarr's face and wondering where those scars of his came from... and the eye injury. Oh, well. Enjoy.**

**x.x.x**

**Your Injuries.**

**x.x.x**

Kizumi and Viqtarr sat on the ledge of the mountain and let their legs hang around like a group of peppy bats on a ceiling. They looked up at the shining crescent moon hidden behind blankets of clouds. Today was a rather slow day for the two; nothing exciting to recall. Everyone was busy with something that left them busy and without the time for chatting. They thought that they found someone when they walked down an alley in the city and came across Wytod, but then he remembered that he needed to help out someone; they only got to talk to him for about ten seconds.

''Wytod wouldn't have been much to talk with anyways,'' Viqtarr told Kizumi as he looked down. ''He's one of the dumbest creatures out there. He might fight good, but he's stupid.'' Kizumi giggled at Viqtarr's claim. She thought the same thing about Wytod and since she was only six, she wasn't exactly open to understanding those that she didn't know a lot about.

Her curious side kicked in as she watched Viqtarr mess with his eyepatch a bit. The bear looked over at her and revealed the large scar on the side of his face. Up until now, Kizumi didn't notice the injury despite the fact that it was right there on his face. She began to wonder where the injuries came from and why he wore that eye patch. With her curiosity and a lack of shyness, the girl got up the courage to ask him.

''Viqtarr?'' she asked.

''Yes, Kizumi?'' Viqtarr answered with a grin and a risen head, ready to answer her question.

''What's with the scar and the eye patch on your face?''

Viqtarr's grin vanished as his head lowered again and turned away to looking down at the ground down below. The memories began to surface; memories that he didn't want to remember. He didn't answer his friend's question. The girl tilted her head.

''Something wrong?'' she asked.

''It's... it's just...''

Viqtarr tried to make himself look like he wasn't falling apart. The memories of a brutal past left him stuck between the world in his head and the one outside of it. As he tried to give Kizumi an answer, the flashbacks played in his mind...

_Broken Edge. Dusk. A battle between the Overworlders and the Mipedians just broke out. The sounds of energy blasts and explosions were heard from miles away as the firefight raged on._

_Viqtarr forced his way through one mob of Mipedian foot soldiers after another as he made his way __over to his fallen comrade. Or at least who he though was his fallen comrade. After pushing his way through the crowds of soldiers, he made it. He approached a larger Mipedian troop on his back, being moved slightly by someone trapped underneath the creature Viqtarr rushed to the trapped one's aid as he shouted ''Katarin__'' all the way there. He was so loud that a few of the other warriors, both Mipedians and Overworlders, stopped fighting to see what was making so much noise._

_He got on his knees and grabbed the Mipedian. Just as he was about to throw him off who he thought was Katarin, he heard her voice._

_''Viqtarr!''_

_He shot up and looked to see a scratched up Katarin running towards him while forcing creatures from both tribes out of his way. As she ran, Viqtarr looked back down at the Mipedian __and pushed him off whoever the stuck person. Underneath the Mipedian was a female human __girl__; a Chaotic Player. __Her eyes filled with fear as she looked up at the creature, fearing for the worst.__ He could have sworn he heard Katarin's voice._

_''Viqtarr, behind you!'' warned Katarin. Viqtarr turned around to see a Mipedian trooper with a mace in hand. Before he could do anything, the soldier swung the weapon at his face. Viqtarr felt pain from his wound and rivers of blood going through his fur as he watched the battle around him. Katarin reached him and tried to talk to him, but the blow left him dizzy. He passed out while his friend began to clean off the gushing blood from his face._

That was how he got his scar.

Viqtarr snapped out of his flashback and looked at Kizumi again. She too had spaced out, looking up at the sky while laying in the grass and humming a tune to herself, letting her small legs dangle. It looked like she had forgotten about the question. The Overworlder looked forward again and sighed. Kizumi heard him and got back to reality as she focused her attention on her friend again.

''Did you say something?'' she asked him.

''No,'' he replied.

''Oh... well, can you answer my question about the boob-boos on your face?''

Viqtarr thought he was in the clear, but he was wrong. Knowing that it was better to say something get her off his chest, he gave her answer.

''Well, um...'' he answered. Kizumi waited patently for an answer. Before he could think of a lie, the flashbacks kicked in again. He then began to remember a time that scarred him more than the face injury...

_It was during a mission to rescue a contact from Mount Pillar, a couple of years after he got the scar. He and Arias got the task of retrieving the contact for Maxxor. Having worked together countless times in the past, they had no problem with teaming up for the mission._

_They were doing fine for the first half of the mission. They had managed to stay out of sight of Danian sentries despite their lack of stealth training. Things stayed that way until the second half of the mission. That was where things got ugly..._

_The two Overworlders were walking through a small, dark shortcut through the larger, brighter ones. They weren't taking any chances of getting caught, especially when it would be 2 against thousands. They thought that the path was desolate. The bottom of it was, but there was someone watching them from below..._

_Observing them from a cliff looking over the shortcut, a lowly Mandiblor armed with a stingblade prepared himself for a kill. This Mandiblor had a hidden talent; sniping. Of the many Mandiblors within Mount Pillar, Viqtarr and Arias were in the crossfire of the one Manidblor who was good at it. Ready to kill the intruders, the Danian selected his first target; Viqtarr, who followed Arias from behind._

_The Mandiblor aimed for the head and was about to fire when one of his hind legs lost its balance. Not seeing this coming, the Maniblor tripped and fell, firing the shot by accident. Despite his fall, the Danian did manage to hit Viqtarr; right in his left eye. The Overworlder's howls and cries of pain startled Arias greatly. When the ram turned around and saw his good friend covering his eyes with both hands as he fell, he looked up at the Danian with a face of rage. Viqtarr never heard Arias tell what happened to the Mandiblor that shot him in the eyes, but he heard rumors from some Chaotic Players that the Danian lived, but barely._

_The rest of the flashback was very vague; all he could remember was him being helped out of Mount Pillar by Arias. Somehow, they managed to get out alive, even though the bear's crying and the Maniblor's shot was heard by just about half of the hive's warriors. When they returned to the city, they rushed to a healer. He spent three days in a room in a bed with his eyes covered in bandages, sleeping so he wouldn't feel the pain. On the second day, the healer told him that his eye was far too damaged to see out of._

_When he was well enough, he went to the market and purchased an eye patch. As he put it on while looking at his reflection through a puddle of water on the street, he saw a different him. He couldn't explain why he felt that way, but he did._

_Ever since then, Viqtarr and Arias agreed that they would never talk about their failed mission. On the same day that they agreed on their silence, Viqtarr learned that the contact in Mount Pillar had committed suicide to prevent the Danians from getting the information that he or she had. Viqtarr never learned who the contact was, though he heard some guards saying that it was an Overworld thief who eavesdropped on the wrong conversation between queen Illexia and her inner circle._

That was how he got the eye patch.

''Viqtarr?''

The voice of Kizumi brought Viqtarr back to reality. He turned his head to face the girl. She looked back at him, waiting for his answer. He thought of just making up a few lies, but turned that idea down. He didn't want to lie to her. He had no reason to. With no other option, he resorted to another answer. He gave the human girl a grin as answered her question.

''I'll tell you when you're older.''

**x.x.x**

**Whenever I think of that Triple Threat episode, my nostalgia kicks in and takes me back to the old days when I was on the edge of my seats as I watched the final episodes of season 2... oh, man, those were some fun times. Anyway, thanks for reading. Any and all reviews are more than appreciated. I'd like to thank blastburnman for the subscription. It means a lot to me.**

**Later.**

**XxX WrittenWithPencils XxX**


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